Staff

Joe Santanello

santanjj@npenn.org

Director of Bands

North Penn Marching Knights, Columbia Jazz Band, Concert Bands

Mr. Santanello, originally from Vernon, New Jersey, is in his 14th year teaching and his fourth year as the Director of Bands at North Penn High School in Lansdale, Pennsylvania. Previously, Mr. Santanello served as the Director of Bands at Strayer Middle School in Quakertown, Pennsylvania. In his time at Quakertown, Mr. Santanello’s ensembles were frequently recognized as outstanding. The Strayer Middle School Wind Symphony was invited to perform at the 2017 Pennsylvania Music Educators Association Conference in Erie and the Strayer Jazz Band was invited to perform at the 2016 Conference in Hershey. In addition to concert and jazz ensembles, Mr. Santanello served as the co-director of the Quakertown High School “Panther” Marching Band for ten years where the band was a regular top-five finisher at USBands National Championships as well the Group IV Open Pennsylvania State Champion in 2016. The North Penn Marching Knights, under his direction, were most recently the 2021 USBands Group IV Open Pennsylvania State, Mid-Atlantic Regional and National Champions.

Mr. Santanello earned his Bachelors of Music in Education from West Chester University of Pennsylvania in 2009, and his Masters in Conducting from the American Band College of Sam Houston State University in 2014. In addition to teaching, he is a regular performer on French horn. Mr. Santanello has served as the principal horn of Pennsylvania Symphonic Winds and Warminster Symphony Orchestra, and has also performed with Liberty Wind Symphony, Doylestown Symphonic Winds, Berks Opera Company and more. He is also the Music Director and Principal Conductor of The Quakertown Band, founded in 1877, which makes it one of America’s oldest continually performing concert bands.

In his free time, Mr. Santanello enjoys weight-lifting, reading, cooking, NY sports, and spending time outdoors with his wife, Kaylee, also a musician. They have a cat, Milo; a dog, Sophie; and a cockatiel, Figaro.

Sean Haddad haddadsa@npenn.org	Assistant Director North Penn Marching Knights Director North Penn Winter Percussion
	Mr. Haddad is a Lansdale local and went through the North Penn School District. Mr. Haddad earned his Bachelors of Music in Education from West Chester University of Pennsylvania in 2014, and is currently working on his Masters in Music Education at Temple University. He teaches 7th grade band at Pennbrook and Pennfield Middle Schools. At NPHS, he started as the Director of the North Penn Winter Percussion in 2015, and became the Assistant Band Director at NPHS in 2016. Mr. Haddad still lives in Lansdale where he stays close to his friends and family.
Rich Hammond	Program Coordinator, Show Design North Penn Marching Knights
	Rich Hammond hails from the beautiful borough of Lansdale, PA. Rich has served as the Program Coordinator, Percussion Caption Head and Percussion Arranger for the 13-Time DCA Champion Reading Buccaneers Drum and Bugle Corps from 1997, 2001 – 2011 and Ensemble coordinator and program consultant from 2016-2017. He has also taught the Crossmen Drum and Bugle Corps, the Glassmen Drum and Bugle Corps and the Westshoremen Drum and Bugle Corps and the Jersey Surf winning the prestigious DCI Open Class High Percussion trophy. In his time with USBands, Rich served as Director of Performing Ensembles, where he managed The 10-Time World Champion Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps, Cadets2 Drum and Bugle Corps, Cadets Winter Percussion and Cadets Winter Guard. Rich played an extremely significant role in the founding of three Cadets Ensembles: Cadets2 (est. 2011), Cadets Winter Percussion (est. 2013) and Cadets Winter Guard (est. 2014). He served as the Director of Cadets2 from the corps’ first season through the summer of 2014, leading C2 to competitive standing in the DCA circuit in its very first year. Rich also served as the Director of Cadets Winter Percussion, where he contributed significantly to program design. He led CWP to win the 2014 WGI Open Class World Championship in the ensemble’s inaugural season. As a result, Cadets Winter Percussion went on to compete in Independent World Class among the very best percussion ensembles from the U.S. and around the world. Working in various capacities for several marching bands and drum corps in the Northeast. Most notably, He has spent 21 years as a member of the North Penn High School Marching Knights Staff (1996-2011, 2017-present) and 14 years as the Director of Percussion for the North Penn School District (1998-2011). He has also worked as a music engraver and custom arranger. Rich is also a sought after judge for numerous Marching Band and Winter percussion circuits, including Winter Guard International.
Bobby Jones	Drill & Visual Design North Penn Marching Knights
	Bobby Jones is a full time Visual Designer, Program Coordinator and Consultant for a multitude of high school and university marching bands, drum corps, winter guards, and indoor percussion ensembles throughout the country. In addition to his new roles with the Raiders, most recently Bobby became the Visual Designer for the Genesis Drum and Bugle Corps. Bobby has served as the Visual Designer and Caption Head for the 2006 Crossmen Drum & Bugle Corps and the 2007 Hawthorne Caballeros Drum & Bugle Corps. From 2011 through 2014 he was a member of the design team with the Jersey Surf Drum & Bugle Corps and was the drill designer for the 2017 and 2018 Cadets. Most notably, Bobby has played an integral part in the success of the Reading Buccaneers Drum & Bugle Corps serving as Visual Designer and Caption Head (2005, 2008-2011) and as Visual Designer and Program Coordinator (2012-2020). In 2019, the Reading Buccaneers earned the DCA World Championship title, Bobby’s eleventh championship with the corps. In 2021 Bobby was appointed to be the Visual Designer for the US Army Training and Doctrine Command Band. Bobby has been recognized by his peers and colleagues for his accomplishments and contributions to the drum corps community with induction into the Reading Buccaneers Hall of Fame in 2014 and into the World Drum Corps Hall of Fame in 2016. Bobby also works as a freelance adjudicator, judging for multiple indoor and outdoor circuits across the country, including WGI Percussion, Cavalcade of Bands (Administration) and the Philadelphia Mummers String Band Division. Bobby lives in Hawthorne, NJ with his wife Amy, son Chase and puppy Myron.
Matt Hurley	Color Guard Caption Head, Visual Design North Penn Marching Knights Director North Penn Visual Ensemble
	Matt brings with him a wealth of drum corps and color guard experience, having marched from the time he was 15. Matt’s drum corps experience started way back in 1979 when he became a member of the Bayonne Bridgemen’s feeder corps; The Bayonne Kidets. He went on to also march with the Bayonne Bridgemen, The New York Skyliners, and the Sunrisers. Being active in the indoor color guard world, he has performed with the Bayonne Kidets, Conquest Color Guard, and The Emerald Marquis. He is currently the World Guard Director and Program Coordinator for the AMP Winter Guard Organization. Prior to his role at AMP, he was also the operations manager with The Black Watch Independent World color guard for 12 years.
Reagan Miller	Visual Caption Head North Penn Marching Knights
	Reagan started her involvement in the marching arts at Whitehall High School from 2009-13. Her drum corps career first began in 2012 during the inaugural year of Cadets2 where she played the mellophone. She went on to march with C2 for another four seasons, later switching from mellophone to trumpet in 2015. During her time at C2 she was the mellophone section leader in 2013-14, trumpet section leader in 2015, and the horn sergeant in 2014-15. In 2016, Reagan spent the summer abroad in Kyrgyzstan completing an internship for her double major in Anthropology and English at Lehigh University but returned to Cadets2 in 2017 to fill an open spot in the trumpet line during the middle of the season. Reagan is currently attending Monmouth University in pursuit of her master’s degree. In addition to performing in the marching arts since 2009, she has been on the visual staff for the Whitehall High School Marching Band for five years and is currently the Visual Caption Head for the North Penn Marching Knights located in Landsdale, PA. She was a part of the visual team at C2 in 2018, Fusion Core in 2019, and is currently teaching for the Bushwackers Drum Corps.
Luke Shayka	Battery Caption Head North Penn Marching Knights
	Mr. Shayka is the Band Director at Kulp, Hatfield, and Oak Park Elementary schools in NPSD and has been working with the Marching Knights and Winter Percussion programs since December of 2019. Prior to joining the district, he was a music teacher at John B. Stetson Charter School in the Kensington section of Philadelphia. At Stetson, he introduced a program in which all 5th grade students learned how to play trumpet and all 6th graders learned trombone. These students had the opportunity to perform at local elementary schools. He was also a percussion instructor with the Bush Academy, a group that provided urban students, including some of his own, an opportunity to perform with the Bushwackers Drum and Bugle Corps. His own drum corps experience is with the Reading Buccaneers, where he played auxiliary percussion and snare drum from 2010 to 2012. Mr. Shayka received his Bachelors in Music from Franklin and Marshall College. At F&M he performed as a percussionist in the Wind Ensemble, Orchestra, and Philharmonic and graduated with Honors. He received his teaching certification and a Masters in Education from Eastern University. He lives with his wife, daughter, and two cats in Conshohocken.
Chelsey Craig	Front Ensemble Caption Head North Penn Marching Knights
	Chelsey has worked with the Marching Knights and Winter Percussion since 2019.